The "forest-prophet" Mathias Lang (also known as Muhlhias and Stormberger) lived in Bavaria from 1753 to 1820. Lang could not read or write, so his predictions went far beyond his educational horizon when he spoke of telephones, electricity, railroads, airplanes, and the atomic bomb. People mocked Lang during his lifetime, but history has proven the accuracy of many of his predictions, such as this one, made before the first World War:

"When the iron road passing through the forest is built and the iron hound passes the deserted bay, afterwards, when the wagon without horse and shaft travels and people fly like birds in the sky, and when the silver fish flies over our forest... then is the war year. "

The Kaltenberg-Deggendorf railway, the "iron road" through the Bavarian forest, was opened on August 1, 1914. The "iron hound" is less clear, but the "wagon without horse and shaft" is of course the automobile. The "silver fish" is a fair description of the Zeppelin, which flew over the Bavarian forest in 1914, just before the war began.

Mathias Lang also accurately predicted World War Two. He spoke of our future in these terms:

"After the Great War there will be no peace. The people will rise and all will fight against each other... The rich and noble will be killed. The World War will not make people better but much worse... Tell your children that their children will live to see the time when the earth will be cleared. God will do away with people because there will be no charity among men. Religious faith will decline; priests will not be respected; people will be intent only on eating and drinking; there will be many immensely rich people and large amounts of paupers; great wealth will not endure long, for the red caps will come. People will hide in forests and many will go into exile. After this civil conflict and general clearing people will love each other as much as previously they hated one another.

"After World War II, people will think that peace has arrived, but it will be an interval only. One day a third World War will start, more awful than the preceding ones.

"When women walk around in pants, and men have become effeminate, so that one will no longer be able to tell men from women, then the time is near.

"People will build houses everywhere, high houses, low houses, one after another. When everyone builds, when everywhere buildings rise, everything will be cleared away.

"There will be a holy Sign in the heavens, that a very severe Master will come and take off the Skin of the People. He will not rule very long, then when all that has happened as I said, then comes the great Clearing Away.

"The Bavarian land will be devastated, and the land of Bohemia [Czechoslovakia] will be cleaned out as by a broom. Over all these places and over the Bohemian mountains will come the Reds... not the French, but the Reds.

"It will happen overnight. While many people sit together in a guest house, outside the soldiers will draw near over the bridge. The mountain will be black with its people, and all will flee, each man will run through the forest. He who has two loafs of bread and loses somebody, he should let them lie and move on, so that he will come through with one loaf.

"However, when you see the horror of the devastation, of which the Prophet Daniel has spoken, then flee as in Judea, to the mountain, and who is on the road, and who is in the field, do not turn around to fetch your garment.

"The people who hide in Falkenstein will be spared.

"The People will be sick and nobody can help them. Those who will make it must have an iron head. Those that have hidden during the great Clearing Away will say to every strange Person, "Brother, where have you stayed hidden --- Sister, where have you hidden yourself?" Then when people stand on top of the mountain, they will see no light in the whole forest.

"And when one looks over the Danube and sees a cow, one should hang a golden bell on her.

"The shepherds will walk around and put sticks in the ground and say, "This is where Rabenstein was, here where Straubing stood."

"Then afterward a good time will come, that which is "Loved by Jesus Christ," and holy men will do wonders. Once people have their faith again, a long period of peace will follow. Those who are still alive will be given housing and as much land as they need. And the more hands one has, the more you will count.

"Then there will be a shortened summer; winter and summer will not be distinguishable. Although everything around the Danube is wasted and dead, there will be people living in the woods and they will build houses in the woods --- beautiful houses, in fact, because all bad things are over and all difficulties have been surpassed. And soon the nettles will grow out of the old buildings. And the forest will grow again without war and death."

Another prediction of World War Three brought much ridicule to Lang during the 19th century. He said that a road would be built over Pragel Pass between Straubing and Pilnersberg, and on it would march the invaders, the "red caps." The region Lang spoke of was so wild and inhospitable at that time that Lang's contemporaries could not imagine anyone living in that area, let along building a road there. Yet in 1972, construction was begun on a road over Pragel Pass, and today we can be certain that Lang was referring to Russians as the "Red" invaders.